MoviePass Is Officially Coming Back (theverge.com) 26
MoviePass, the defunct discount ticketing service, will return this summer without the firm that ran it into the ground, says co-founder Stacy Spikes. The Verge reports: The company, recently bought by Spikes after his unceremonious ouster from MoviePass in 2018, held its launch event today at the Walter Reade Theater Lincoln Center in NYC. Spikes began by wasting absolutely no time addressing the Helios and Matheson Analytics-shaped elephant in the room. The firm is now infamous for being the parent company of MoviePass that managed to blow the entire thing up shortly after the firm bought the startup, which became famous for offering unlimited movie tickets for a monthly fee.
"A lot of people lost money, a lot of people lost trust," Spikes said, claiming he was among those who were hurt by the company's mismanagement. During the opening moments of the event, Spikes oscillated between addressing the disappointment of being pushed out of his company, joking about MoviePass' loyal consumers -- as well as its power users, who Spikes cracked are the reason the company went out of business -- and finally, the process of snapping the company back after its parent company went bankrupt in 2020. "We're looking at this from another point of view," Spikes said of the company's relaunch, adding that he now plans to run the business like a "co-op." Spikes added that MoviePass users will be able to hold partial ownership of the company, with its most premium tier inclusive of a lifetime subscription.
The company's original engineering team is returning for the business's relaunch, according to Spikes, and the service will launch this summer. Under the new model, MoviePass will run on tradable credits that roll over month to month. Subscribers will also be able to use their credits to bring a friend, a markedly different approach from the single-user card system that MoviePass used previously, which could prove annoying for non-cardholders. MoviePass 2.0 will also work on a tiered system, Spikes said. Spikes shared images of a beta version of the new app and the credit-based system, which will vary based on things like peak moviegoing hours. MoviePass' ambitions for subscribers are, charitably, ambitious. Spikes wants to claim 30 percent of the moviegoer market by 2030, MoviePass' "moonshot" goal. Somewhat unsurprisingly, MoviePass will incorporate aspects of Spikes' existing business PreShow, a technology that has been used to allow gamers to trade ad views for in-game currency. [...] Spikes told attendees at the event that MoviePass' most loyal fans will be "deputized" to beta users and will be able to use the experience for its first year for free. At some point during the summer, these users will be contacted about the beta programming.
"A lot of people lost money, a lot of people lost trust," Spikes said, claiming he was among those who were hurt by the company's mismanagement. During the opening moments of the event, Spikes oscillated between addressing the disappointment of being pushed out of his company, joking about MoviePass' loyal consumers -- as well as its power users, who Spikes cracked are the reason the company went out of business -- and finally, the process of snapping the company back after its parent company went bankrupt in 2020. "We're looking at this from another point of view," Spikes said of the company's relaunch, adding that he now plans to run the business like a "co-op." Spikes added that MoviePass users will be able to hold partial ownership of the company, with its most premium tier inclusive of a lifetime subscription.
The company's original engineering team is returning for the business's relaunch, according to Spikes, and the service will launch this summer. Under the new model, MoviePass will run on tradable credits that roll over month to month. Subscribers will also be able to use their credits to bring a friend, a markedly different approach from the single-user card system that MoviePass used previously, which could prove annoying for non-cardholders. MoviePass 2.0 will also work on a tiered system, Spikes said. Spikes shared images of a beta version of the new app and the credit-based system, which will vary based on things like peak moviegoing hours. MoviePass' ambitions for subscribers are, charitably, ambitious. Spikes wants to claim 30 percent of the moviegoer market by 2030, MoviePass' "moonshot" goal. Somewhat unsurprisingly, MoviePass will incorporate aspects of Spikes' existing business PreShow, a technology that has been used to allow gamers to trade ad views for in-game currency. [...] Spikes told attendees at the event that MoviePass' most loyal fans will be "deputized" to beta users and will be able to use the experience for its first year for free. At some point during the summer, these users will be contacted about the beta programming.
Let me guess (Score:3)
Under the new model, MoviePass will run on tradable credits that roll over month to month. ...
Those credits will be stored on the blockchain and be redeemed and traded as NFTs ... :-)
Re:Let me guess (Score:5, Funny)
Don't give them any ideas! /s
Re: (Score:2)
You should be on their board of directors, just think of the money you could make!
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Re: Never understood how MoviePass made money... (Score:2)
What's that old saying? (Score:5, Insightful)
"The definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over yet expecting a different result."
Or maybe it's "Fool me seven times, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me."
COVID (Score:2)
The depressed viewership during COVID makes for a great time to bring back moviepass. /s
It's a shame (Score:3, Insightful)
I was really hoping that if any good could've come from this awful pandemic, it's that it would've finally ended Hollywood's archaic insistence on releasing movies exclusively in cinemas. I get that some people find it enjoyable as a way to spend an evening out, but it's completely unnecessary in an era of streaming. If the music industry operated in the same manner, you'd have to visit a concert hall every time a new album was released, and if the horse and buggy industry had the same level of influence as Hollywood, we'd all have to own a horse and buggy before being allowed to buy an automobile.
Re: (Score:2)
See the thing is the music industry doesnt make money on concerts and their records come out immediately so its not even the same.
Re: It's a shame (Score:2)
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Must be nice to have a big screen and a big sound system and living in a nice standalone house with spread out neighbours and driving a big SUV or pickup truck, right?
Because that's something only in North America, and only in the suburbs, and in a lot of places, that's also a long commute to the office if not working from home.
Reality for a lot of people, most of the people outside of North America, is that theatres are pretty much the only place you can see a movie because the alternative is a TV of 50" o
Re: (Score:2)
lol, yeah. Nope, both then and now! (Score:2)
A young Linux admin we will call "John" under my tutelage back around 2014-2016 invested $20k of his savings in MoviePass. I warned him of the foolish nature of his investment. Yeah, he lost everything. Don't be a John.
This isn't a surprise (Score:2)
cannot be trusted (Score:2)
fooled me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. IMO, they cannot be trusted, especially with my credit card info after the stints they pulled the last time with all the different rule changes and unauthorized cc charges.
CollegeHumor on MoviePass. (Score:2)
Also check out their Tide CEO video.
They will need to help re-open closed theaters (Score:1)
181 movies for just $94 (Score:3)
https://apnews.com/article/nor... [apnews.com] ...But then came a too-good-to-be-true subscription deal from MoviePass, a promotion that offered a daily movie for a year for just $94. With ticket prices no longer an issue, I ended up seeing 181 movies — including most of the Oscars contenders. Those movies would have cost me $2,747 without MoviePass. That’s 52 cents per film, a 97 percent discount from $15. The deal was so good that MoviePass no longer offers it....
Re: (Score:3)
How many of those would you have paid full price to see? At say $10 a piece (for easy math) would you have paid to see more than 9 of those? If not, that is money that went to the movie industry anyway. Granted I don't know what portion of those fees went to the theaters or studios, but the math is still there. You spent $94 to watch movies that you likely wouldn't have otherwise. That's 181 opportunities your local theater had to sell you concessions that they wouldn't have had. I know the couple of